71. But it was her own choice!

She married a career soldier. She knew the consequences of that, and that being married to a career soldier meant moving whenever he was reassigned. When he was reassigned, she chose not to go with him.

She left him. To use your word, she "abandoned" him. Not the other way around.

It's entirely conceivable that she left him for legitimate reasons and wanted to seek a divorce. I have no problem with that, and it's absolutely her right to do so. But don't try to paint a soldier being reassigned from one base to another as abandonment. It's not even close to the same thing.

Ultimately though, it doesn't matter. The child was conceived and born to a married couple. Paternity is assigned at birth in that circumstance, so the fathers rights cannot be terminated by the mother alone. Legally, it's a completely different situation than a single mother giving birth to a child from an absent or ex boyfriend, or where the father is unknown. In that case (which is more common), there is no legal father. In this case, there IS a legal father.